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Jan Němec and the Czechoslovak New Wave

Along with Milos Forman and Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec was one of the key figures of the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s. Though heralded as an exciting new generation of filmmakers abroad, their work did not always garner immediate recognition due to state-controlled distribution and government censorship. With a conviction to create “a world independent of reality as it appears at the time,” Němec made only four feature films and a handful of shorts in his native country before he was banned from filmmaking after the Soviet Union quashed the Prague Spring in 1968.

These screenings presented by Wexner Center for the Arts are part of a touring retrospective of Jan Němec films INDEPENDENT OF REALITY: The Films of Jan Němec in North America, premiered by BAMcinématek in New York. The retrospective is produced by Comeback Company, curated by Irena Kovarova, and organized in partnership with the National Film Archive, Prague; Aerofilms; and Jan Němec - Films.